Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 19 sees first official stable release

DaVinci Resolve 19 seems to have been in beta forever. With six different releases, it sure is one of the most prolific beta cycles I’ve seen. But now, DaVinci Resolve 19 has been finalised as stable, and it brings a whole host of new features to the popular NLE.

Blackmagic says that it adds 100 new feature upgrades, thanks to some new DaVinci Neural Engine tools. The new update now also makes the AI-powered text-based editing far more useful and in line with what we’ve seen from the competition.

DaVinci Resolve 19 – Text-based editing grows up

Blackmagic hasn’t released a new video going over the DaVinci Resolve 19 features yet, so enjoy the video above from MrAlexTech, going over some of the new features. But the biggest amongst them for me are the enhancements to text-based editing.

Text-based editing was (sort of) introduced in DaVinci Resolve 18.5. It used AI to go through your timeline, and figure out what was being said. When you click on the text, it would take you into the timeline so you could see where it was and make your edits… On the timeline.

It works well, but I felt it fell a little short of the text-based editing features introduced into Premiere Pro around the same time. Now, with DaVinci Resolve 19, it looks like it’s not only caught up with Adobe but exceeded it in a number of ways. You can even name individual speakers to make it easier to see who’s who.

Lots of new AI tools – with easy Audio Ducking

DaVinci Resolve 19 – particularly the Studio version – adds a lot of new tools and AI-powered features.

First up, there’s audio ducking. This is the process whereby background music gets quiet when people start to speak on the microphone. The music then gets louder again once the person stops talking. It allows voices to be heard over music without needing to have the music kept quiet throughout the whole sequence.

Often, people will keyframe when music goes quiet in their videos, but ideally, an automated solution is quicker overall. Audio ducking was possible in DaVinci Resolve before, but it used a fairly complex setup in Fairlight. Now, it’s right there on the Audio page of the inspector tab.

The trim editor has been added to the edit page, allowing you to get finer control of your cuts and transitions. You can now have a fixed playhead on the edit timeline, too. There are a bunch of workflow enhancements, such as the ability to search and expand all FX folders.

Studio users see more new tools

For those using DaVinci Resolve Studio, the paid version of the app, there are yet more features for you in the lastest Version 19 release. There’s a dialogue separator, face refinement, Ultra NR noise reduction and a new Film Look Creator, which allows you to quickly and easily grade your footage.

The Dialogue Separator is an interesting tool. It does what you’d expect it to do. It separates the dialogue from the rest of the audio. For most of us, though, that means enhancing the dialogue and reducing distracting background noise. Here, though, you can keep the background noise and remove the voice, too. As I said, it’s interesting. I look forward to seeing how people will use this.

Ultra NR is an AI-powered noise reduction tool. From the responses of people using the beta, these aren’t quite as good as some of Resolves existing noise reduction tools, however, they are much faster. So, if speed is important to you and the quality still looks ok, then it’s a win win!

The Film Look Creator looks like a very powerful tool for those looking to really simulate a film look. It offers a Lightroom-style slider interface to tweak things like the contrast, white balance, exposure, tint, etc. controls. But it also offers things like halation and bloom.

It’s probably the most advanced film simulation tool I’ve seen in an editor. It certainly offers the most options.

There are a lot more updates to both the free and Studio version of DaVinci Resolve besides these, so be sure to check out the complete list on the DaVinci Resolve website.

Price and Availability

Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 19 is available to download for free from the Blackmagic website. DaVinci Resolve Studio 19 costs $295, but it’s a one-time cost.

There are no subscription fees with DaVinci Resolve Studio, and once you have a license, it works forever. As such, existing Resolve Studio owners can download the latest update to DaVinci Resolve Studio 19 for free.